Oregon is in top 5 for states with highest proportion of same-sex couples

The top five states with the highest proportions of same-sex couples are: Vermont, Massachusetts, California, Oregon and New Mexico.

Last year's once-a-decade count of the nation's population represented the first time the Census Bureau encouraged gay, lesbian and bisexual couples who consider themselves spouses to report their marital status as "husband," or "wife" even if they were not legally married. Couples also had the option of counting themselves as "unmarried partners."

Gary Gates, one of the study's authors and a demographer who studies sexual orientation and gender identity laws and policy, said there was a 50 percent increase nationally of same-sex couples.

Some of the increase is likely a result of more couples identifying as same-sex households, researchers say.

-- The Associated Press

*** 'Treesort' suit filed after fall settled in Josephine County

GRANTS PASS (AP) -- A Washington state couple has settled a lawsuit against Josephine County for $1.2 million after they were injured in a fall at a bed and breakfast that calls itself a "treesort:" the rooms are tree houses. The Grants Pass Daily Courier reports the federal court suit was filed after a 2008 fall from a suspended bridge at the Out 'n' About establishment near the California border.

The suit says Michelle Buswinka and Maurice Breslin of Kirkland were having their picture taken when the railing they were holding broke. The suit blamed the county for faulty work on inspections and permits.

County Legal Counsel Steve Rich says the county's insurance company recently agreed to settle the claim, and the money did not come out of the county's general fund.

***

View full sizeJamie Francis/The OregonianHanford is the site of B Reactor, the world's first large-scale nuclear reactor of any kind. The site produced plutonium for the Trinity device, the Nagasaki weapon and Cold War weapons.

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) -- U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings says he is pursuing legislation to recognize the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor as a national historic park.

Last month, the Interior Department recommended that Congress establish a national historic park to commemorate the top-secret World War II Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb.

Included in those sites is the Hanford nuclear reservation's B Reactor. The reactor was built in 13 to produce plutonium for the atomic bomb.

Hastings visited B Reactor on Monday to celebrate the push to preserve the reactor. The Washington state Republican says the effort recognizes those who labored there and who were forced to leave their homes for its construction.

The other two sites recommended for recognition are Los Alamos, N.M. and Oak Ridge, Tenn.

***

Sheriff uses Facebook to track down bragging suspect

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- A suspected reckless motorcycle rider has discovered the law's long arm now reaches into cyberspace.

The Yakima County Sheriff's office says they tracked the 19-year-old man down via Facebook.

Deputy Chris Gray says in a release that the incident began when a man on a motorcycle outran pursuing deputies late last week near Moxee, just east of Yakima.

Authorities later noticed a Facebook posting by a man boasting about eluding officers, as well as a photo on the page of a motorcycle similar to the one they sought.

Gray says that when the suspect was rousted at 4 a.m. Saturday by deputies with both a search warrant and a printout of the page, he acknowledged he was the rider.

The man, whose name was not released, has been charged with reckless driving and other infractions.

Department spokesman Chad Lewis says inmates are not allowed to have Internet access. He says Facebook accounts are sometimes set up by relatives or by inmates with contraband cell phones.

Lewis tells Northwest News Network that so far the communications have mostly been with friends and family and not for criminal activity. But the department is asking Facebook for the same deal the company recently struck with California prisons, where some sinister activity had been alleged.

California officials say they found an inmate who used social media to track down his victim.